WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump spars with California’s governor over immigration enforcement, Republicans in Congress called other Democratic governors to the Capitol on Thursday to question them over policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sat in front of large, full-color posters showing men who they said were in the country without legal permission when they were arrested for crimes in Illinois, Minnesota and New York — home of the governors testifying before the committee.

Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer began the hearing by introducing the family of a young woman killed in a hit-and-run traffic crash in Illinois, suggesting its sanctuary policies had facilitated the illegal presence of the driver of the other vehicle.

“Sanctuary polices do not protect Americans, they protect criminal illegal aliens,” Comer said.

Republican Congress members clashed repeatedly with the Democratic governors, often recounting descriptions of violent crimes allegedly committed by immigrants in the U.S. illegally who were not previously detained by local police.

At one point, Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury, of New Mexico, interjected to denounce the “theatrics.”

“Welcome everyone to the Oversight reality TV show,” Stansbury said. “I know Mr. Trump loves himself some good TV, and today is not disappointing.”

There’s no legal definition of a sanctuary jurisdiction, but the term generally refers to governments with policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Courts previously have upheld the legality of such laws.

But Trump’s administration has sued Colorado, Illinois, New York and several cities — including Chicago and Rochester, New York — asserting their policies violate the U.S. Constitution or federal law.

Illinois, Minnesota and New York also were among 14 states and hundreds of cities and counties recently listed by the Department of Homeland Security as “sanctuary jurisdictions defying federal immigration law.” The list later was removed from the department’s website after criticism that it errantly included some local governments that support Trump’s immigration policies.

As Trump steps up immigration enforcement, some Democratic-led states have intensified their resistance by strengthening state laws restricting cooperation with immigration agents. Following clashes between crowds of protesters and immigration agents in Los Angeles, Trump deployed the National Guard to protect federal buildings and agents, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom accused Trump of declaring “a war” on the underpinnings of American democracy.

“As we speak, an American city has been militarized over the objections of their governor,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “At the outset, I just want to say that this is a flagrant abuse of power.”

Some of the most fiery exchanges involved Hochul and Republicans from her home state. Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, who has been named as a potential 2026 gubernatorial candidate in New York, described instances in which she said people were raped, molested and burned alive by immigrants who had entered or remained in the U.S. illegally.

“You are not advocating on behalf of these victims, you are shielding illegals,” Stefanik said to Hochul while interrupting the governor’s attempted responses.

Hochul said the crimes were “horrific” and “heartbreaking” and insisted “we cooperate with ICE; we cooperate with law enforcement” in criminal cases.

Republican Rep. Nick Langworthy, of New York, later implied that Hochul’s policies were partly to blame for the death of University of Georgia student Laken Riley, who was killed last year by a Venezuelan man who had entered the U.S. illegally. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the man had been arrested by New York police in 2023 but was released before ICE could ask New York officials to hold him.

Pressed further by other Republican questioners, Hochul expressed sympathy for Riley’s family but said “this has nothing to do with our civil enforcement of the laws.”

Gubernatorial orders prohibit New York officials from inquiring about or disclosing a person’s immigration status to federal authorities, unless required by law.

Hochul said law enforcement officers still can cooperate with federal immigration authorities when people are convicted of or under investigation for crimes. Since she took office in 2021, Hochul said the state has initiated the transfer of more than 1,300 incarcerated noncitizens to ICE at the completion of their state sentences.

“What we don’t do is civil immigration enforcement — that’s the federal government’s job,” Hochul said.

The House Oversight Committee has long been a partisan battleground, and in recent months it has turned its focus to immigration policy. Thursday’s hearing follows a similar one in March in which the Republican-led committee questioned the Democratic mayors of Chicago, Boston, Denver and New York about sanctuary policies.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the first to testify, rejected the assertion that Minnesota is a sanctuary state. It has no statewide law protecting immigrants in the U.S. illegally from deportation, though Minneapolis and St. Paul both restrict the extent to which police and city employees can cooperate with immigration enforcement.